Time spent in emergency departments

Emergency department

This section shows data related to presentations (visits) to this hospital’s emergency department. Each visit is counted separately, so the number of presentations may not be equal to the number of people seen or treated by the emergency department if some people visited more than once. Here, ‘patients’ refers to the number of presentations.

This section shows the percentage of patients arriving at this hospital’s emergency department who commenced treatment within the maximum recommended time. Recommended maximum waiting times vary depending on the urgency of the patient's need for care (their triage category), as assessed by a healthcare professional in the emergency department. The five triage categories are called: Resuscitation, Emergency, Urgent, Semi-urgent and Non-urgent.

Resuscitation waiting time (requires treatment immediately)

In 2017–18, 100% of resuscitation patients were treated immediately upon arrival (within 2 minutes) at the emergency department of this hospital, compared to its national peer group performance of 100%.

In 2016–17 and 2017–18, Victoria (excluding Albury hospital), Queensland and Western Australia provided data to the NNAPEDCD using the national best endeavours data set (NBEDS) specification, while all other states and territories provided data to the NNAPEDCD using the NMDS specification.

About the measure

Waiting time is the time between arrival (presentation) at the emergency department and commencement of clinical care.

When patients arrive at the emergency department they are triaged by a health professional according to the urgency of their need for care. Each urgency (triage) category specifies a recommended maximum waiting time for commencement of clinical care 1. Clinical care refers to the assessment and treatment phase of care (and is referred to on MyHospitals as ‘treatment’).

The five triage categories are:

Resuscitation (requires immediate treatment which is defined for this report as commencement of clinical care within 2 minutes from the presentation time)

Emergency (treatment required within 10 minutes)

Urgent (treatment required within 30 minutes)

Semi-urgent (treatment required within 60 minutes)

Non-urgent (treatment recommended within 120 minutes)

The cohort includes all patients presenting to the emergency department with a type of visit coded as ‘emergency presentation’.

Patients are excluded from the measure if the episode end status was ‘did not wait’, ‘dead on arrival’, or were ‘registered, advised of another health care service, and left the emergency department without being attended by a health care professional’.

Calculating the measure

‘Number of patients’ refers to the full cohort of patients in each triage category.

The percentage of patients who commenced treatment on time is calculated as the percentage of patients with the waiting times of equal to or less than the recommended maximum waiting time.

Only presentation data which met certain criteria are included in the calculation. The criteria for calculating and presenting results are:

Valid times for presentation and service commencement

Valid triage category

5 or more (or 0) presentations seen on time (in the numerator)

10 or more presentations in the category (in the denominator).

Detailed specifications

Data are prepared according to the National Healthcare Agreement (NHA) indicator PI 21a–Waiting times for emergency hospital care: Proportion seen on time. Data are reported on this website for the Performance and Accountability Framework (PAF) indicator Emergency Department waiting times by urgency category. The PAF indicator has the same definition as the NHA indicator, and is reported at hospital level and peer group level. Peer group, state and national-level data are available in the publication Emergency department care 2017–18: Australian hospital statistics (AIHW, 2018).

There is variation between states and territories in the assignment of an episode end status of ‘registered, advised of another health care service, and left the emergency department without being attended by a health care professional’, which may affect the comparability of results. Thus the results for 2016–17 and 2017–18 may not be directly comparable with previous years, and peer group comparisons for 2016–17 and 2017–18 should be interpreted with caution.

The definition of an emergency department changed in 2013–14 which resulted in additional hospitals being included in the NNAPEDCD data collection. Thus the results for 2012–13 may not be directly comparable with subsequent years.

Arrival (presentation) time is the earliest recorded time of either the commencement of the clerical registration or the start of the triage process.

This section shows the percentage of patients who departed the emergency department (ED) within four hours of arrival. Data are presented for all patients; and by triage category (the urgency of the patient’s need for care as assessed by an emergency department healthcare professional). The five triage categories are called: Resuscitation, Emergency, Urgent, Semi-urgent and Non-urgent. Data are also presented for patients admitted from the emergency department to the same hospital; and for patients discharged from the emergency department.

Percentage of all patients departing the emergency department within four hours of arrival

In 2017–18, 65% of all patients departed this hospital's emergency department within four hours of arrival, compared to its national peer group performance of 69%.

In 2016–17 and 2017–18, Victoria (excluding Albury hospital), Queensland and Western Australia provided data to the NNAPEDCD using the national best endeavours data set (NBEDS) specification, while all other states and territories provided data to the NNAPEDCD using the NMDS specification.

About the measure

The measure, percentage of patients arriving at the emergency department who departed within four hours, includes all patients presenting to the emergency department with any type of visit code (not just Emergency presentations).

When patients arrive at the emergency department they are triaged by a health professional according to the urgency of their need for care. Each urgency (triage) category specifies a maximum waiting time for commencement of clinical care 1. Commencement of clinical care refers to the assessment and treatment phase of care (and is referred to on MyHospitals as ‘treatment’).

The five triage categories are:

Resuscitation (requires immediate treatment which was defined for this report as commencement of clinical care within 2 minutes from the presentation time)

Emergency (treatment required within 10 minutes)

Urgent (treatment required within 30 minutes)

Semi-urgent (treatment required within 60 minutes)

Non-urgent (treatment recommended within 120 minutes)

Patients are considered to have departed the emergency department when they physically leave (regardless of whether they were admitted to the hospital, referred to another hospital, were discharged or left at their own risk). The mode of leaving the emergency department is identified by the episode end status.

Results are presented for all patients, and by each triage category; by patients admitted to the same hospital from emergency department and by patients discharged from emergency department.

The ‘discharged from emergency department’ measure includes patients who: ‘departed without being admitted or referred’, were ‘referred to another hospital for admission’, ‘did not wait’ to be attended by a health care professional, ‘left at own risk’ before care was completed, ‘died in the emergency department’, were ‘dead on arrival’, or were ‘registered, advised of another health care service, and left the emergency department without being attended by a health care professional’.

Calculating the measure

‘Number of patients’ refers to all emergency presentations in each category.

This measure is calculated as the number of patients within each category whose time of physical departure was within four hours of their time of presentation, divided by the number of patients in that category.

Only presentation data which met certain criteria are included in the calculation. The criteria for calculating and presenting results are:

Valid times for presentation and physical departure

Valid departure status (episode end status) for measures of time spent by patients admitted to the same hospital or patients discharged from emergency department

5 or more (or 0) presentations that departed within four hours (in the numerator)

10 or more presentations in the category (in the denominator).

Detailed specifications

Data are prepared according to the National Healthcare Agreement (NHA) indicator PI 21b–Waiting times for emergency hospital care: proportion of patients whose length of emergency department stay is less than or equal to four hours. Data are reported on this website for the Performance and Accountability Framework (PAF) indicator Percentage of Emergency Department patients transferred to a ward or discharged within four hours, by triage category . The PAF indicator has the same definition as the NHA indicator, and is reported at hospital level and peer group level. Peer group, state and national-level data are available in Emergency department care 2017–18: Australian hospital statistics (AIHW, 2018).

The definition of an emergency department changed in 2013–14 which resulted in additional hospitals being included in the NNAPEDCD data collection. Thus the results for 2012–13 may not be directly comparable with subsequent years.

Patients admitted to the same hospital or discharged may spend time waiting to physically depart the emergency department. This time is included in calculations of time spent from arrival to departure from emergency department. This time was out of scope for the NNAPEDCD before January 1 2012, but in scope after that. Thus the results for 2011–12 may not be directly comparable with subsequent years.

Arrival (presentation) time is the earliest recorded time of either the commencement of the clerical registration or the start of the triage process.

This section shows information on the length of time spent in the emergency department (ED) from arrival to departure, including the median time patients spent in the emergency department (time until half of patients (50%) had departed from the emergency department) and the time until most patients (90%) had departed from the emergency department. Data are presented for all patients; patients treated and admitted to the same hospital; and patients discharged from emergency department (whether discharged, left at their own risk or referred to another hospital).

Time spent by all patients in the emergency department

In 2017–18, the median length of time for all patients to depart this hospital’s emergency department was 3 hours 17 minutes. The length of time until most patients (90%) had departed was 7 hours 30 minutes, compared to its national peer group performance of 7 hours 50 minutes.

Time spent in the emergency department (patients treated and admitted to the same hospital)

In 2017–18, the median length of time for patients to leave this hospital’s emergency department for admission to the same hospital was 4 hours 14 minutes. The length of time until most patients (90%) had departed was 9 hours 50 minutes, compared to its national peer group performance of 13 hours 48 minutes.

Time spent in the emergency department (patients discharged)

In 2017–18, the median length of time for patients to leave this hospital’s emergency department (whether discharged, left at their own risk or referred to another hospital) was 2 hours 40 minutes. The length of time until most patients (90%) had departed was 5 hours 58 minutes, compared to its national peer group performance of 5 hours 6 minutes.

In 2016–17 and 2017–18, Victoria (excluding Albury hospital), Queensland and Western Australia provided data to the NNAPEDCD using the national best endeavours data set (NBEDS) specification, while all other states and territories provided data to the NNAPEDCD using the NMDS specification.

About the measure

Time spent in the emergency department is the time between the patient’s arrival (presentation) at the emergency department and their physical departure.

The cohort includes patients presenting to the emergency department with any type of visit code.

The median is the time until half of the patients (50%) had departed the emergency department.

Results are presented for all patients, and by triage category; by patients admitted to the same hospital from emergency department and by patients discharged from emergency department.

The patients included in the ‘discharged from the emergency department’ measure are patients who: ‘departed without being admitted or referred’, were ‘referred to another hospital for admission’, ‘did not wait’ to be attended by a health care professional, ‘left at own risk’ before care was completed, ‘died in the emergency department’, were ‘dead on arrival’, or were ‘registered, advised of another health care service, and left the emergency department without being attended by a health care professional’.

Calculating the measure

‘Number of patients’ refers to all presentations for each category.

The median time spent in emergency departments is calculated as the time between patient presentation and physical departure for the patient at the 50th percentile, which means that half of patients’ waiting times are either the same or less than this waiting time. The median is the time until half of the patients (50%) had departed the emergency department. Only data which met certain criteria are included in the calculation. The criteria for calculating and presenting results are:

Valid times for presentation and physical departure

Valid departure status ( episode end status) for measures of time spent by patients admitted to the same hospital or patients discharged from emergency department

In 2016–17 and 2017–18, Victoria (excluding Albury hospital), Queensland and Western Australia provided data to the NNAPEDCD using the national best endeavours data set (NBEDS) specification, while all other states and territories provided data to the NNAPEDCD using the NMDS specification.

About the measure

Time spent in the emergency department is the time between the patient’s arrival (presentation) at the emergency department and their physical departure.

The cohort includes patients presenting to the emergency department with any type of visit code.

This measure calculates the time until most patients (90%) had departed the emergency department. Results are presented for all patients, and by triage category; by patients admitted to the same hospital from emergency department and by patients discharged from emergency department.

The patients included in the ‘discharged from the emergency department’ measure are patients who: ‘departed without being admitted or referred’, were ‘referred to another hospital for admission’, ‘did not wait’ to be attended by a health care professional, ‘left at own risk’ before care was completed, ‘died in the emergency department’, were ‘dead on arrival’, or were ‘registered, advised of another health care service, and left the emergency department without being attended by a health care professional’.

Calculating the measure

‘Number of patients’ refers to all presentations for each category.

The time until most patients had departed the emergency department is calculated as the time between patient presentation and physical departure of the patient in the 90th percentile of times in that category.

Only data which met certain criteria are included in the calculation. The criteria for calculating and presenting results are:

Valid times for presentation and physical departure

Valid departure status ( episode end status) for measures of time spent by patients admitted to the same hospital or patients discharged from emergency department

10 or more presentations in the category (in the denominator).

Notes:

The definition of an emergency department changed in 2013–14 which resulted in additional hospitals being included in the NNAPEDCD data collection. Thus the results for 2012–13 may not be directly comparable with subsequent years.

Patients admitted to the same hospital or discharged may spend time waiting to physically depart the emergency department. This time is included in calculations of time spent from arrival to departure from emergency department. This time was out of scope for the NNAPEDCD before January 1 2012, but in scope after that. Thus the results for 2011–12 may not be directly comparable with subsequent years.

Arrival (presentation) time is the earliest recorded time of either the commencement of the clerical registration or the start of the triage process.

This section shows the number of presentations (visits) to this hospital’s emergency department. Data are shown for total presentations, and by the urgency of the patient’s need for care (their triage category), as assessed by a healthcare professional in the emergency department.

Total presentations

In 2017–18, 36,174 patients presented to this emergency department
for treatment.

In 2016–17 and 2017–18, Victoria (excluding Albury hospital), Queensland and Western Australia provided data to the NNAPEDCD using the national best endeavours data set (NBEDS) specification, while all other states and territories provided data to the NNAPEDCD using the NMDS specification.

About the measure

The measure, ‘Number of patients’, includes all presentations (visits) to the emergency department. The cohort includes patients presenting to the emergency department with any type of visit code.

When patients arrive at emergency department they are triaged by a health professional according to the urgency of their need for care. Each urgency (triage) category specifies a maximum waiting time for commencement of clinical care 1. Commencement of clinical care refers to the assessment and treatment phase of care (and is referred to as ‘treatment’).

The five triage categories are:

Resuscitation (requires immediate treatment which was defined for this report as commencement of clinical care within 2 minutes from the presentation time)

Emergency (treatment required within 10 minutes)

Urgent (treatment required within 30 minutes)

Semi-urgent (treatment required within 60 minutes)

Non-urgent (treatment recommended within 120 minutes)

Data are presented for total presentations and by triage category.

Calculating the measure

‘Number of presentations’ refers to all presentations for each category.

Only data which met certain criteria are included in the calculation. The criteria for calculating and presenting results are:

The definition of an emergency department changed in 2013–14 which resulted in additional hospitals being included in the NNAPEDCD data collection. Thus the results for 2012–13 may not be directly comparable with subsequent years.

Arrival (presentation) time is the earliest recorded time of either the commencement of the clerical registration or the start of the triage process.